Introduction - What is sexual behavior?

History of the Term 3

To a certain degree, the objections to Linné’s “sexual classification method” were understandable. To many moralists it seemed that Linné and other scientists were trying to "sexualize" nature or, in other words, that they were imputing a lascivious purpose to the growth of every last leaf of grass. This charge was unfair, but it articulated a valid general impression. With the rapid advance of biological and medical research, more and more areas of life were fearlessly investigated, anatomies and behaviors were compared, and connections were demonstrated where none had ever been noticed before. Once people started to think of roses and daffodils as sexual beings, the concept of sex gained entirely new dimensions. Sex suddenly became all-pervasive, and this realization, in turn, was bound to have a bad influence on the excitable minds of the young. Ironically, however, after a while the moralists themselves took advantage of the enlarged new perspective and explained human reproduction to their children by talking about "the flowers, the birds, and the bees".